On March 7, local time, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released its latest statistics on global intellectual property filings. Amid rising interest rates and economic uncertainties, the total number of international patent applications filed through WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system amounted to 272,600, marking a 1.8% decrease compared to the previous year, the first decline in 14 years. Applications through the International Trademark System saw a 7% decrease, while international industrial design applications witnessed a 1% increase. China remains the largest source of international patent applications, followed by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Germany. In the ranking of applicants, Huawei from China tops the list with the highest number of international patent applications, followed by Samsung from South Korea and Qualcomm from the United States.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang said that despite the short-term decline, the long-term trends show that the application of intellectual property is becoming steadily in an increasingly globalized and digital economy and is expanding globally as economies around the world develop, setting the stage for a recovery in international IP fillings later this year. Among the international patent applications submitted through the World Intellectual Property Organization, Asian countries account for 55.7%, compared to just 40.5% a decade ago.

In the published international patent applications, computer technology had the largest share of PCT applications at 10.2%, followed by digital communication (9.4%), electrical machinery (7.9%), medical technology (6.7%), and pharmaceuticals (4.7%). The number of patent applications in these five fields accounts for around two-fifths of the total number of published applications.

From CCTV News

March 7th, 2024